Alice in Wonderland
by TheCandyGirl22
Summary: Alice is a middle schooler who escapes to Wonderland to avoid being frowned upon for her quirkiness by peers and adults, and at first Wonderland seems wonderful, at first everyone seems lovely, at first she isn't running for her life.
1. Introduction Thingy

Introduction Thingy

So, this is my first real fan fiction ever! Haha! I really hope you guyses and girlses enjoy it! :) So yeah, that's pretty much it, HOORAY FOR ALICE! AND WONDERLAND! :D Which I do not own sadly. I do not own the tea, I do not own the hatter, I do not own the hare, I do not own Alice, I do not own that drawing of the pig with wings, I do not own Wonderland, but I _do_ own my imaginimation (Yes, I know I spelled that wrong.) And I also own _you_! Haha, that's right you're mine now! You'd better get used to it! :P Well, I hope you like it.

Peace & Love,

theCandyGirl22


	2. Letter to No one and the Entire World

Letter to No one and the Entire World. (Or, as a Non-Wonderlander would say, Chapter One)

Wonderland. As the name would suggest it is a land full of wonders. Some fantastic, some terrifying, all of them wonderfully insane.

You may think that you've never been to Wonderland before, but you have, we all have. We visit Wonderland after we go to sleep, and before we awaken. The ligher parts of Wonderland are our dreams. The darker parts are our nightmares.

In some ways Wonderland is more logical than the normal world. In Wonderland, there is not a doubt in your mind of who you are or what your greatest desires are, but at the same time, you're more doubtful than you have ever been before.

Wonderland can only project mirrors of your desires, and fears, figuring out the rest of the puzzle is up to you.

Wonderland is tricky though, and the rules of Wonderland are different than in the regular world.

For example, in Wonderland, up is sideways and down is diagnle. This is just common knowledge, but common knowledge is the hardest knowledge to find, seeing as everything is different, and every different thing has its own common roots, so common knowledge in one place is completely foreign in another, and it is very seldom that you find common knowledge that is common in all the common roots of the different places.

As you can tell, to figure out Wonderland, you have to be mad.

Mad, like a hatter.

Or, as a non-Wonderlander such as yourself might say, mad like a person that works with hats and mercury poison all day long.

But mad as a hatter just has a nicer ring to it, now doesn't it?

Being mad isn't so bad, it helps you understand Wonderland, you'll see.

Being mad isn't hard either, all you have to do is look at the world as a mad person would, or an infant. The two really aren't that far apart.

For instance, half always means that something has been split right down the middle. It doesn't matter if the two halves are symmetrical or not. There is much too much of the world out there to be worrying about symmetry.

Also, if you were to turn a cup of water upside down, the water, of course, would stay in the cup, because the whole purpose of the cup is to keep the water in it. The only way to get it out is to drink it. There is also much too much of the world out there to be worrying about gravity.

The trick is to think logically and illogically all at the same time. It's a little hard at first, but eventually you grow used to it.

I have visited Wonderland many times now, and I have grown so accustomed to it, I doubt that I will ever leave.

Wonderland is my home now, and yet I know I don't belong here. It is built completely wrongly and rightly for me, but in particular, it is built writely for me, so as I may write about it as I am doing now. (If you could understand that last sentence, you are beginning to think like a hatter.)

Hoping to see you in Wonderland soon,

Alice


	3. A Meeting With a Mad Man

A Meeting With a Mad Man. (Or, as a Sane Person Would say, Chapter Two)

You are probably anxious to begin our story, but before we do, we must first do a bit of time traveling.

I apologize if you were hoping we'd be traveling into the future, but that would be quite dangerous, seeing as the future hasn't happened yet, and therefore does not exist. It is risky business, traveling into non-existence, because if you do so, you must be willing to risk that you will not come back.

I wouldn't want to be so rude as to do this to the dear reader, so we instead will be traveling to the past.

Please don't be upset, after all the past is much safer than the future, since it does exist, and the future isn't even relevant to our story.

Nevertheless, we will be traveling back to eight years ago, when Alice was only five.

"Mommy! Mommy! Look at what I drew!" exclaimed little Alice.

Alice had taken a light pink crayon and drawn what might have resembled a pig-like creature at some point with wings.

"What is this?" her mother asked.

"It's a pig with wings!" said little Alice.

"That's nice," her mother replied.

"Do you think we can go see one at the zoo someday?" she asked.

"No, honey, they don't have flying pigs at the zoo."

"Where do they have them?" asked Alice, looking around as if she expected to find a pig with the silverware.

"They're not real, nobody can see them."

"But _I_ can see them," she protested. "That's how I drew it."

Her mother sighed. "I think it's time for me to tell you the difference between fantasy and reality. This pig is only real in your imagination, which is in your head. you won't be able to see it in real life, it's just nonsense."

Now, seeing as her mother had just told her everything she drew was nothing but nonsense, and talked to her the way one might address a small child, (even though Alice _was_ a small child, she thought of five as a 'big girl age' and hate being thought of as small.) Alice was reasonably upset, which is why she acted so rudely when she replied.

"Fine!" Alice shouted. "If you don't like it, I'll just show daddy instead!"

She stomped away in a huff from the kitchen, and ran down the hall to her father's study, knocking down the pictures that hung on the wall.

She stepped into the study where her father was sitting at his desk, reading.

"Daddy, do you want to see the picture I drew?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied, setting his book down. "Where is it?"

Alice handed him the picture and he chuckled and asked, "What is this?"

"It's a flying pig."

"That's nice," he said.

She took the paper and smiled to herself contently. She had won.

She had taken a few steps forward and was just about to take her first step onto the white carpet of the hallway when she heard her father mutter to himself, "The utter nonsense small children come up with.

Alice ripped up her picture and ran to her room. Once there, she slammed the door shut and began to cry.

You may or may not be thinking to yourself that Alice is a brat, but you must take into consideration that Alice had just been told by both of her parents that her creativity was nothing but nonsense _and_ she had been called a small child. One must admit that if you or I were in the same position, we would probably do something similar.

So, it was here with her back against the wall that little Alice cried. She still didn't fully understand why she couldn't see a flying pig in the sky of the world when she could see one in the sky of her head.

That's when Alice felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. Assuming that the hand belonged to her mother or father, Alice was about to shout at it to go away, but when she raised her head from her tear stained hands, she found herself breathless.

Alice was no longer in her bedroom.

Where there had once been light blue carpet, there was now bright green grass. Where her window was, there was now a large oak tree. Her bed had become a table with a creamy yellow table cloth, and good kitchen china, sliver and a bright copper tea kettle on top of it. Even though Alice was positive it had been raining when she last looked outside, there was no rain here, there was just bright sun and a friendly blue sky.

That's when things started to get a lot weirder.

The hand belonged to a polite looking man dressed entirely in red and white stripes. He had light blue eyes and light brown hair and looked to be somewhere in his twenties. His cheeks had an odd pale color to them, however. Pale pink.

"Why do you cry, child?" he asked, his voice was kind and soft.

"I am not a child," Alice said, wiping tears off her face as she sat up.

"Of course you aren't," responded the man.

"Where am I? Who are you? Why am I here?" she asked.

Despite the fact that Alice had randomly found herself in a different world where the only sign of life other than plants and herself was an oddly dressed man, Alice was much more curious than she was scared.

"You're in Wonderland, of course," said the man. "You're here because you wanted to be here, and I am the Mad Hatter."

"_Mad_ Hatter?" asked Alice, jumping back a bit.

"Why of course," said the Hatter. "Everyone in Wonderland is mad."

"But aren't you sad that you're mad?"

The Hatter looked at her as if she had just stood up in the middle of a movie theater and loudly announced, "Cheesecake is good."

But, of course, since the Hatter was mad, he probably would have stood up in the theater shortly after that and loudly shouted, "Pie!"

So it would probably be more appropriate to say that the Hatter looked at her as if she had done something strange, even by mad people standards.

The Hatter looked at her as if she had done something strange, even by mad people standards.

He paused for a moment and than he spoke again, "I'm not sad to be mad, I'm glad to be mad, for when you're mad, there's such adventures to be had! Now to be sane, that's a thought worse than rain, more dreadful than pain, and yet I detain. I'm so glad to be mad, instead of sane, what a fad! I've been mad since I was a young lad. You see, I would go to my father's workplace where he worked with hats. I would sit and would watch him, I watched him and sat. But then, mercury was unheard of and its poisoning too. The madness must have spread to me, this is my story that's true. I followed his footsteps, walked right down his path, and that means double the madness, now that's simple math. But that, of course, was many years ago. How many exactly, how am I supposed to know? If there's one thing that madness makes you lack it's the somewhat useful ability to keep track of the years and the months and the days that go by. What is time when you're mad? It just seems to fly. And that, my dear child, is the story of that. And the _one_ thing you can expect from me is that I will wear a hat."

He finished the last sentence by pulling a black top hat out of thin air, and placing it on his head.

Alice found herself giggling at the mad man and the utter nonsense of it all.

"How about a cup of tea?" he asked, gesturing toward the table.

Alice nodded and eagerly rushed over to it.

"Before we drink a single drop, however," announced the Hatter. "We must first introduce the introduction of introductions. Meet the March Hare."

Seated in one of the chairs was literally a Hare. He wore a loose button down shirt with a bright red tie, but that was all.

"It's very nice to meet you Mr. Hare," responded Alice.

She stood rather awkwardly then. She wasn't sure if she should shake his paw or pet him.

"And Mr. Hare," said the Hatter. "Meet...It has just occurred to me I don't know your name, dear child."

"It's Alice," said Alice.

"Very well than, Mr. Hare, meet Alice."

"Lovely to meet you dear," said the Hare.

Alice gaped at him. "You-you can talk!" she exclaimed.

"Well of course I can talk," said the Hare. "Animals don't have silly limitations in Wonderland, you know."

"Alright," said the Hatter clapping his hands together. "Why don't we have some tea now?"

Alice took a seat across from the Hare and next to the Hatter.

Alice noticed the Hatter's cup was _huge._ It was almost as big as the tea kettle.

"How in the world will you ever be able to drink all of that tea?"

"I don't drink it all at once. I save it."

"But how?" asked Alice.

"It is also my hat," replied the Hatter.

Before Alice could utter another word, the Hatter swiftly removed his top hat and turned the tea cup upside down and placed it on his head.

Alice expected hot to completely drench him, but nothing happened.

"Why doesn't the tea come out and get you wet?" she asked.

The Hatter looked at her strangely.

"Because it's in a cup, of course."

I apologize, dear reader, for that is all the time traveling we will be doing for now.

The purpose of the time traveling was to show you how Alice came upon Wonderland, and now that that purpose has been served, we can finally move on to the present day part of our story.


	4. What a Strange Cat You Have

_**So hi everybody! ^^ I'm sorry it took me such a long time to upload the new chapter but I've been kind of busy lately. I have a lot of fun with all of my chapters, but this one was special because I got to misspell the word, "a". Lol. I hope I made the sarcasm in the part about lectures clear. I wanted to add the part with all the misspelled words, so people would think to themselves, "Dear God, I should start using spell check!" I admit, I'm guilty. xD I need to use spell check a lot more often than I do. Lol. Stay in school, kids! ;) I know that this story is marked under, "Horror" but nothing horrific has happened yet, I promise that will change in about the next two chapters. ^^ As you can probably tell from the title of this chapter a new character is being introduced in this one, and the introduction of this character is all tied into what leads to the horror part. :D Well, that's pretty much it. Thank you very very much to the two kind people that left reviews. Lol. And if you are reading this, thank you as well for taking time out of your day to sit down and read my random and totally pointless fan fiction. :D And if you're reading this I'm going to beg you to please, please, please, please, please, please, please review! It's what keeps me going. ;) **_

_**Love & Tea**_

~TheCandyGirl22

What a Strange Cat You Have (Or, as a Mentally Healthy Person Would Say, Chapter Three)

Alice was being tortured, but this, of course, went unnoticed by those around her, as they were also being tortured and were much too concerned with their own suffering to spare a moment's thought on her.

Now, before you start panicking and weeping uncontrollably for Alice's well being, you must first let me explain. Really, you shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly, it makes myself, as the author feel like a monster. You don't honestly think I would put Alice in such a position of danger so early in the story, do you? Of course I wouldn't. Alice's life doesn't get threatened until later in our story. Doesn't that make you feel better?

Our dear Alice isn't in the dungeon of some great castle, nor is she in serious physical pain. The torture she is being forced to endure is endured by many brave students in middle school every day. This torture, my dear reader, is the torture of lectures.

As you probably know, lectures were created a very long time ago, and thought by some to be the earliest form of torture. These so called lectures were invented by adults as a way to torture small children that they didn't particularly like. In these 'lectures' and adult drones on and on about useless "facts" that the children are expected to memorize, as the adult talks too fast.

As I'm sure you can imagine, the parents of these children were horrified to learn that their children were being subjected to such horrific deeds, and at once demanded to have these cruel adults punished.

Unfortunately, these cruel adults were actually rather clever, and convinced the parents that the children needed to endure this gruesome task for the sake of their "education". The gullible parents fell hook, line, and sinker for this ridiculous excuse and the first school was made.

Unluckily for Alice, the lecture she was being forced to endure is one of the most infamous and arguably one of the worst and is known as, "The English lecture."

aZ yUu CuN tUlL fRuM dIs SeNtUnSe HaFeNg GoOdE gRaMuR eNd SpUlInG aEnT dA lEeSt BbIt EmPeRtEnT eNd EeT dUnT bOdDeR nO oNeE hOo EeZ aDdEmPtEnG tOo ReEdE yUuR rItEnG mAkEnG zUcH lEsUnS uZeLuSs, EnD uH jEnErAl DiZzGrAsSe TwO rItEnG eVeReEwErE.

Most children are forced to keep themselves awake during these lectures, but luckily for Alice, she has Wonderland, and she managed to slip away.

She arrived in the same place she had the first time she came upon Wonderland.

The grass was still green, the sky was still blue, and the air was still warm. The weather was always like this, forever blissful and care-free.

She watched as a rocking horse fly, a peculiar creature that looked like a miniature rocking horse with the long, slender wings of a horsefly, rocked itself over to the large oak tree, only to be frightened away as an unseen owl _hoot!_ed angrily, upset at being disturbed from its slumber.

The Mad Hatter was sitting at the table, which was still covered with a creamy yellow table cloth, and he was sipping tea from his oversized tea cup hat.

Everything was the same as that first day. In fact, the only thing that seemed to have changed was The Hatter was dressed in red polka dots, instead of stripes.

Alice wasn't so easily fooled, however. She knew more had changed than simply The Hatter's outfit, she could _feel _it, and she rushed over by his side, plopping herself down on the chair adjacent to him so she could find out what was new.

Alice looked up at him, and she could tell he had something he wanted to say, and was very excited about it.

He was also trying to hide it and failing miserably.

As you probably know, it is oftentimes very difficult to maintain a calm expression when one has a surprise for another and desperately wants to tell them it.

The Hatter was actually doing very well, by normal standards at least.

He wore a perfectly casual face, and if you or I saw him while walking down the street, sitting as he was now, I'm certain we would both be quite frightened to see an alarmingly pale and oddly dressed man sitting on thin air in the middle of the sidewalk, but we would also be under the impression that he was bored.

Alice knew better.

Whenever The Hatter was bored, he was giddy and often started talking to himself as a way of amusement. He never wore the nondescript expression he had now.

Alice could see right through his seemingly bored guise, of course, but decided to play along and act as though she suspected nothing. The trouble with this was that she wasn't a very good actress and The Hatter instantly saw through her disguise as well.

They simply sat for a moment, neither of them talking, and just stared at each other for a while.

The Hatter continued to look boredly onward, and Alice bit the insides of her cheeks to prevent her lips from curving upward into a smile.

They only lasted another minute or two before finally succumbing and laughing like lunatics, which, of course, they were.

But, eventually everyone must breathe, no matter how hard they have been laughing, so in between giggles and gulps of air, Alice asked The Hatter what had happened.

The Hatter stood up, and placed his oversized tea cup hat on his head. With a wide grin, he spoke. "I got a cat."

Alice smiled brightly at The Hatter and clapped her hands together in delight, a trait she had earned from him. "That's wonderful!" she exclaimed. "Where is it?"

The Hatter's grin grew wider. "He's been sitting next to you this entire time."

Alice immediately directed her attention to the space next to her, only to find that it was empty.

She looked at The Hatter quizzically, but he simply made a gesture to the space next to her again, and to her great surprise, a row of teeth, suspended midair into a grin sat next to her.

She watched in open mouthed astonishment as the rest of the cat filled in. Its golden yellow eyes, its pure white whiskers its silver stripes, and then the rest of its pitch black fur.

"Alice," said The Hatter. "Meet The Chesire Cat."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Alice with a little bow of her head and a quick curtsy.

"The pleasure is all mine," reassured The Cat with a deep, rumbling purr.

Alice grinned. When The Hatter had mentioned a cat, naturally she expected to find your average house cat with the ability to talk wondering somewhere in the grass, playing with a dandelion. After meeting The March Hare, Alice had grown used to the idea of talking animals, but she certainly didn't expect to see the grinning, vanishing, and Cheshire variety. Something perfectly understandable, seeing as there are so few Cheshire Cats left in the world, and most people go their entire lives without seeing one.

The Cat lazily drifted above the creamy yellow table cloth and took a tea cup, holding it with its two front paws, and if you have ever been a cat, than I'm sure you know how difficult this is to do in such a form.

Alice, The Mad Hatter, and The Cheshire Cat engaged in a pleasant and generally average conversation while sipping their tea consisting of how the weather was, how they were all doing, and how pie and cheesecake were very tasty desserts indeed.

There was a short silence as they all continued to drink their tea and had fourth and fifth helpings of cheesepie, an ingenious delicacy The Hatter had made himself upon the three of them deciding that the only thing better than cheesecake or pie would be the two combined together, when suddenly The Chesire Cat slowly began to unravel.

Alice watched as the silver tip of his tail began to unwind, leaving empty space behind. The Hatter watched as the rest of the black fur unraveled, disappearing into a dark mist, and they both watched as The Cat's eyes, nose, and whiskers dissolved.

All that was left was a great mischievous grin and a tea cup, left floating around in midair as if it had a will of its own.

"Mr. Cat?" asked Alice uncertainly. Having just met The Cat, she still wasn't anywhere near used to his appearing and disappearing and it made her feel a bit unsettled, along with giving her a half empty feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if The Cat was only an illusion made from mist and with a simple gust of wind, she might disappear as well.

The Cat came back together all at once and blushed a bit in embarrassment, something that would be a cause for medical attention and general panic in a normal house cat, but completely normal for a Cheshire Cat, although the blush was a bit hard to see through The Cat's thick fur.

"I apologize," purred the cat. "That tends to happen when my thoughts drift away, I always seem to drift away with them. I've been dissolving and coming back my entire life and I still can't completely control it."

Alice smiled sympathetically at The Cat. "I'm sure that must be very difficult, but you'll get used to it eventually."

"_That's_ likely," snickered The Hatter, he started laughing but stopped when The Cat gave him a hurt look. "But it's a very useful skill of course, and with practice I'm sure you'll perfect it," he quickly added.

"Thank you," half purred half growled The Cat.

The Hatter raised an eyebrow. "Was that growl directed at me by any chance?"

The Cat grinned mischievously. "How did you guess?"

"Just a feeling," replied The Hatter.

The Cheshire Cat winked at Alice before slowly beginning to dissolve again.

"No you don't!" shouted The Hatter. "I'll pour this tea on your head!" he announced loudly while holding his over sized tea cup menacingly above The Cat's dissolving head.

All three of them laughed.

"Hatter," said The Cat. "You must have gone mad because as you can clearly see, the tea is in a cup, and you can't pour something out of a cup when it has been designed to hold it. That's simple logic."

"I haven't gone mad," insisted The Hatter. "I was born mad."

The Cat chuckled softly before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Alice turned to The Hatter. "Does he do that often?"

"Yes," he replied. "It's even worse at night, he blends in with everything so well, but you know how Wonderland is at night, of course."

Alice shook her head. "I don't believe I've ever visited Wonderland at night. I've only stayed for a couple of hours at a time."

"Well, we're going to change that," announced The Hatter. "Now that I think of it, there's so much of Wonderland you haven't seen. There's certainly much more than this table and its immediate surroundings."

Alice's eyes brightened up. "Could we go exploring? Like an adventure?"

"Of course," said The Hatter. "I'd be insulted if we didn't.

The Cheshire Cat chose that moment to reappear next to Alice lying on it's back in midair.

"Exploring?" he asked. "Why, I certainly hope you weren't planning on doing that without me."

The Mad Hatter merely gave The Cheshire Cat a mischievous smile that could only be surpassed by The Cat's own grin, and the three of them set off to go explore exactly what was beyond the table and its immediate surroundings.


	5. Through the Forest

Through the Forest (Or, as a Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Not Insane Person Would Say, Chapter Three)

After walking along the meadow for a while, Alice, The Mad Hatter, and The Cheshire Cat came to a stop at the edge of a wood.

The last golden rays of the sun were beginning to disappear, and after a moment of standing at the edge of the forest, pitch black darkness took over.

It was dead silent until a deep growl issued from somewhere in the forest.

"Well," said The Hatter cheerfully. "Let's continue onward."

Alice stared at The Hatter, or, she at least tried to stare at him. She couldn't tell what she was looking at in the dark.

"Continue onward?" she asked uncertainly. "Into the dark forest where several deep growls are issuing from?"

"Precisely that forest," replied The Hatter.

Alice looked at The Hatter as if he was mad, although this wasn't saying much seeing as The Hatter's insanity wasn't a well-kept secret, so she always looked at him as if he was mad, which, of course, he was, so it would be much more appropriate to say that Alice looked at him as she normally did, but for the simple purpose of not complicating things any further than we already have, we may as well go back to the first option and say that Alice looked at The Hatter as if he was mad.

Alice looked at The Hatter as if he was mad. (Which, of course, he was.)

Without giving Alice enough time to object, The Hatter stepped into the forest and The Cheshire Cat, or rather The Cheshire Cat's grin seeing as that was all that was visible of him at the moment, followed.

Alice, certainly not wanting to venture into the dark forest but even more so not wanting to be left alone in the dark, found herself with no other option but to follow the mad man and the strange cat.

As she took her first steps into the dark forest, she found that it really wasn't so dark after all. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be darker outside the forest than it was in it.

She walked along much more confidently now, prepared for anything sinister that might leap out at her.

Although, with the crunch of pine needles underfoot and the light breeze that gently blew through the trees, even Alice had to admit that it was peaceful, particularly when an especially strong scent of lavender wafted over.

"The moon seems unusually bright," Alice noted.

This statement was true, and if one were to tilt their head upward, they would have seen the luminescent glow that moons tend to let off, but on this night, even the luminescence itself appeared to be illuminated, making the sphere twice as bright as it would normally be.

"I wonder if that's why it's so bright in the forest?" she wondered aloud, but quickly dismissed the thought with a shake of her head. "Of course that's not the reason why. If that were so, it would be lighter outside of the forest, certainly this much light wouldn't be able to make it through all of the branches and such.

The Hatter and The Cat started to laugh, their loud laughter seeming to bounce off the tree trunks and resound everywhere around them.

Alice looked at the pair questioningly, wondering what on Earth could have caused them to randomly burst out laughing like that, but then again, this was hardly surprising seeing as they were both mad.

The Hatter's laughter eventually died down to a low chuckle while The Cat's faded away altogether.

The Cat _tsk tsk_ed and The Hatter shook his head presumably in disappointment, shoulders still shaking from chuckling.

"My dear Alice," he said. "You speak as though you know nothing of Wonderland at all. In order to distribute light to where it is most needed, the moon would zero out the forest, of course, and focus all of its energy on it."

"Yes," chimed in The Cat. "You speak as though the moon has no free will of its own."

"It's not my fault," stated Alice defensively. "In school, we were taught that the moon was merely a chunk of the Earth that flew off when the world was still young, that it was a good sized rock that reflected light from the sun."

The Mad Hatter and The Cheshire Cat started up their hysterical laughter once again.

"What ridiculous things they teach children in school!" exclaimed The Cat, and at this point Alice couldn't help but join in on the laughter because it was true, after all that the things taught in school are often entirely ridiculous.

But nevertheless, they continued onward, the strange creatures of Wonderland making their odd noises and going about their derived way as the trio went about theirs.

They passed by several pink flamingos who complained of how painful croquet was, while something Alice _thought _was a turtle of some sort began reciting poetry of his life which he continuously insisted was very sad, at which the Hatter rolled his eyes and a fight very nearly broke out until The Cat appeared between them in a puff of smoke and threatened to bring out his claws if he had to and some very helpful flowers calmed everyone down.

After this slight delay, the three continued on their way in silence. (The silence mainly caused because The Cat was mad at The Hatter for, 'Acting very rude and foolishly and almost starting a fight which could have easily been avoided altogether', and partially because everyone was beginning to feel drowsy because it was, after all, getting quite late, and thus no one was really in the mood for conversation.)

But nevertheless, Alice broke the silence approximately twenty minutes later, but not before yawning so loudly that an egg reciting poetry on a wall very nearly fell off.

"I wonder," she stated, her eyelids drooping a bit from sleep deprivation. "Where we'll be spending the night?"

She looked over at The Hatter who, at this point, looked quite a bit like a zombie, as he was thudding and stumbling along quite loudly as a result of his eyes being closed, although instead of mumbling, 'Brains', as zombies tend to do he was instead mumbling, 'Tea', and he had his hands stretched out in front of him, as though he were accepting a cup of it.

Upon hearing Alice's voice, however, The Hatter's head jerked right up, and he looked around, confused, before rubbing his eyes and answering Alice's question, which he had somehow managed to hear while half-asleep.

"A grand castle made entirely of cards and owned by The Queen of Hearts," The Hatter half-mumbled, half-stated, another side effect of being drowsy, Alice assumed.

Alice simply thought The Hatter was spouting absolute nonsense, seeing as he was not only insane, but at the current moment quite a bit drowsy, and a combination of the two, as I'm sure you know, often leads to the spouting of absolute nonsense.

Alice, however, had been raised to be polite, and didn't think it very polite to inform someone that they were spouting absolute nonsense, no matter how nicely it was done, or how true it was, so she merely exchanged looks with The Cheshire Cat who seemed to think nothing of the, 'Grand castle made entirely of cards and owned by The Queen of Hearts', which The Hatter had mentioned, so the three trudged drowsily deeper and deeper into the woods.

It wasn't much longer before the woods came to a sudden stop and Alice, The Mad Hatter, and The Cheshire Cat found themselves in front of a magnificent heart shaped gate and on either side were rose bushes, although Alice thought they seemed a bit off when it finally struck her that half of the roses were white, and the other half looked as though they had been very sloppily painted red.

Alice frowned a little. Whoever had done this was certainly in a rush at the time.

The Hatter had noticed the roses too, and oddly enough, he was shaking his head at them rather sadly.

"They didn't get the right ones again, poor fellows. They should either learn to read labels or learn to paint faster."

The Hatter took his hat off and stared at the roses silently for a moment, and though Alice wasn't sure what was going on and what roses had to do with it she still tried looking as solemn as possible.

The Cat, meanwhile, had his gaze transfixed on the heart-shaped gate as though he had never seen anything like it, which he hadn't, as it was very unusual, even by Wonderland standards.

The gate was a wrought-iron one, as gates often are, but this wasn't what was so unusual about it, of course.

The gate was also black and (or at least Alice assumed) cold to the touch, although this wasn't what was so peculiar about it either, because, as I'm sure you know, there are a great many gates throughout not only our world, but Wonderland as well, which are black, wrought-iron, and grow cold to the touch after being left outside all night, because very few people ever let their gates inside no matter how dreadful the weather gets.

However, while the gate's general outline didn't change from a heart, the bars seemed to bend and twist to create words, which was _very_ unusual indeed.

It flashed from word to word so fast it took Alice much longer than it normally would have to read such a short message, but nevertheless, she did, and she made the words out to say, 'The Red Queen has what she wants the moment it's said or else she will chop off your head.'

Alice shivered before looking up at The Hatter. "We're staying _here_?" she asked uncertainly.

So far this night, it seemed as though everything The Hatter did had been shrouded with doubt but nevertheless, The Hatter didn't seem to notice this. (Or if he did, he certainly wasn't letting anything on, and since The Hatter was such a bad actor, we can generally assume that it was the first option.)

The Hatter merely acknowledged Alice's question with a nod of the head and a, "Trust me, The Red Queen is really very sweet just so long as you don't get on her bad side."

This statement did not make Alice feel better at all, and, not wanting to be decapitated, she immediately made a list in her head of proper etiquette and general kindness when addressing queens of strange and faraway places. Nothing, however, came to her mind, so she simply decided on keeping her mouth shut and being as polite as possible.

The Hatter smiled at both of them, completely oblivious to Alice's horrified expression, before simply pushing the gate open.

Alice couldn't help but wonder how The Red Queen kept trespassers out if she didn't have a gate which locked properly, but then she supposed that the threat of decapitation was security enough, as most creatures will become wary of a place if their heads are in any danger of being lost.

Even after The Hatter's not so reassuring reassurance, Alice couldn't rid herself of the goosebumps that pricked up on her arms but nevertheless she followed The Hatter and the Cat because, after all, she still wasn't sure about those deep growls in the forest and what had made them, and would much rather not find out by herself.


End file.
